Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we have the interdepartmental working group on homelessness. That, I guess, is the vehicle that is at the present time at the working level being utilized to identify some of the problems, to look at a strategy for action in this whole area, Mr. Speaker. The strategy being, you know, can we look at a decrease in homelessness? Can we provide more support services? How do we provide and where do we find the housing needs? We need to build a foundation for implementing a housing strategy for homelessness. I think that is what the working group really is all about. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to my Member's statement regarding the state of Highway No. 2 in Hay River, I brought this issue up in the Assembly in June. At that time I questioned the Minister of Transportation as to where his department was in his engineering study of Highway No. 2. At that time the Minister committed to having the study completed this fall.

I would like to ask the Minister to inform this House if that study has been completed and if so if I will be getting a copy of that study. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the report that I referred to will be completed this fall. I in fact just signed a letter to the Member today giving him a copy of the preliminary report with the final report to be delivered by mid-November. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad we are getting closer to this lucid report, or engineering study. Would the Minister inform this House as to whether there will be a course of action attached to that engineering report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member's concerns. I can assure the Member that there will be some options presented in both the preliminary report and the final report. The preliminary report will lay out three options but will not have the full cost assessment of each of those. It will be detailed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last session in June, I spoke about the need for some public safety issues regarding Highway No. 2. In the last session, in June, I spoke about the need for some public safety regarding Highway No. 2. This highway is used extensively by my constituents that ride their bikes and walk along this stretch of highway and there are no sidewalks or paths for pedestrians.

Would the Minister please state what his department has done to improve public safety along this stretch of highway? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, he is correct, a lot of it does not have a sidewalk along it. A lot of our roads unfortunately do not. Even within municipal boundaries we do not always have a sidewalk on the edges of the road.

In referring to the piece, particularly from the airport toward the Old Town area, that is the most dangerous piece. The speed limits are lowered and we will continue to keep safety in mind as we develop each of the options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in April of this year the Town of Hay River put forward a proposal to the Department of Transportation requesting funding under the department's local community access road program in order to construct some bike paths along that stretch of highway.

Would the Minister please indicate to the House what his department has provided to Hay River in the line of funding for this project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation has not provided any funding to the community of Hay River under the community access program since the proposal that was put forward does not fit under the community access road criteria.

This would seem to me to be a matter that my colleague and I in MACA would want to look at more carefully to see if there is a way of doing it through municipal funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services with respect to medical travel. Now yesterday I had the opportunity to stand up and give accolades to the Minister of Education for noticing a glitch in a program. I am wondering if the Minister of Health and Social Services would consider the supplemental health benefits when it comes to medical travel and tell me why it is that a patient travelling out would be required to pay the travel co-payment, meals, accommodation and transportation to and from the medical services when they get there, but if you were a medical escort or just an escort that there would be no travel co-payment and you would get reimbursed for taxis, meals and nightly accommodation in a commercial facility. Does that not seem a little unusual to the Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just the way the Member laid it out in her relatively quick way it does seem somewhat problematic. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will try to lay it out more slowly for the Minister. Under the current medical travel policy, a patient is not entitled to a ride to Edmonton, taxis to and from the medical services, accommodations or meals. But, if you were the escort of that patient, medical or otherwise, all of those things would be covered. What about the patient, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.